Goren's Rough Night
by VerelLupin
Summary: Just when you thought it was safe to talk to your pillow!


**Bobby Has a Bad Night**

**Robert Goren's Apartment 08:30pm**

Robert Goren or bobby as he was known to friends was having a bad night. Usually after visiting his mother, he was a wreck but with the grueling case that had been handed to him, he honestly had thought it wouldn't have affected him as much.

Ironically one of the few times he wasn't right. His partner Alexandra Eames or Eames as he thought of her in his mind, had asked him if he wanted her to stay the night to keep him company.

**Several Hours Before**

"I can stay and we can go over the new leads we uncovered today." eames said looking worriedly at her partner.

"No, it's ok. You said you have dinner plans with your sister and I don't want to keep you, besides there are things I need to go over and it just drive you nuts to watch me go on and on about the same thing." he replied smiling at her offer

"Bobby, I know today was especially hard..." he interrupted her with a wave of his hand," I'm just gonna take a quick shower and I'll be all right." he replied stepping into the elevator

"Call me if ..." her sentence was cut off by the elevator door. "you need anything." she finished staring at the elevators shinny doors. T

**Robert Goren's Apartment 09:00 pm**

Bobby was now staring at the photographs and case file spread on the coffee table, wishing he'd taken Alex's proposal. "Alex." he said to himself. He would never admit it for fear of losing her friendship but Bobby was becoming more and more aware of his attraction to his beautiful partner.

Just the idea of her petite body pressed against his 6 foot tall frame made his mind go into all sorts of crazy places. He knew that over the years she'd gotten used to him leaning indecently close to her to read over her shoulder. He loved any opportunity to be near her and took shameless advantage of her trust.

He knew his concern went way beyond a partner, when she went missing he had felt like a part of him had gone as well. Sitting by her bed, seeing her skin covered in bruises and cuts had nearly sent him out of the room, but when she opened her eyes, he couldn't have left her side anymore than he could stop breathing.

He sat up and placed his head in his hands staring at his floor, wondering what she was doing and if she sometimes thought about them not as partners but as the couple they were always pretending to be. He knew he was in a dangerous situation, falling for your partner was a big no-no.

He had heard of the big to do when Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler from SVU got together. The department was forced to accept it because they did not want to lose such dedicated and respected officers.

But for himself, he knew they thought of him as a dormant volcano. One outburst that could trigger an explosion. An idea that had only begun to dissolve due to his partner.

Her pregnancy and then disappearance had brought it back to the for front. Bobby Goren was not totally stable at least that what he figured everybody thought. That's what it felt like to him when she

hadn't been around all that time.

He picked up his phone and stared at it, almost as if wishing it would call her by itself. He pressed her number but couldn't bring himself to call her and ruin her evening.

He left his sofa and headed to his room. He tossed and turned all night, the grips of a nightmare making it impossible to get a decent sleep. He woke up groggily at 3:00 am and picked up his cell from his bedside table, once more dialing her number but failing the courage to hit the send button.

He placed the phone beside his pillow, pretending he was telling Eames everything that had been weighing on his mind. Unknowingly he had pressed the send button and the real Eames was gonna get an earful.

**Alexandra Eames Apartment - 2:45 am**

Alex was sound asleep, exhausted from chitchatting and late late dinner with her sister plus whatever further study her notes had needed.

She was dreaming of Bobby which was not unusual he was her partner. The dream was ordinary enough, at least so much that it didn't even resemble a dream but a slice of her everyday life. He was sitting across from her staring at a point above her head mumbling to himself.

She smiled and continued making her phone calls, it was at this point that she noticed the ring. She was dialing when a fairly large glare took her attention. Sitting on her finger was platinum band with several diamonds surrounding a ruby, her birthstone.

She looked up shocked, ready to ask bobby about the ring when the captain called them in. "Goren, Goren get in here" he said and went into his office.

She looked over to bobby who was heading to her side, helping her up and supporting her as if she was pregnant. Which she was when she looked down. You would figure something like that would not escape notice. "Why are you helping me, why am I pregnant and why did the captain call you twice?" she asked him.

He gave her that smile that said he'd figured out something before she did. "Are you feeling ok?" he asked cocking his head to the side in that way she found so adorable.

"I'm helping you because you get cranky when the wheel gets stuck, which you claim is from all the weight you've gained, forcing the chair into the floor." he said.

Putting up a hand in mock defense when she glared at him," your words not mine.

If I have to explain why you are pregnant, you definitely have to go home and third, Captain called you and me into his office." he said.

"But why do we have the same last name?" she said confused.

"Usually happens when people get married unless you want to hyphen it or something. Maybe Eames-Goren, that sounds nice too." he said hypothetically.

At that exact moment Eames woke up in a sweat and her cell phone rang. Both were greeted with a "damm!!."

"Hello?" she asked yawning.

**Robert Goren's Apartment 3:01 am**

"Hello?" Bobby blinked and stared at his ceiling. "Great now on top of everything I'm hearing her voice." he said to himself.

"Who am I kidding, why would you be interested in me?" he asked his phone.

No answer came and he continued his conversation with his phone.

"I know that any type of connection beside what we have would be disastrous. What would Captain and Carver and the rest of the department say." he sighed frustrated.

"Its not like you even think of me that way, always tripping over my own words and stumbling over my own feet. Like some massive gawking, awkward teenager with a crush on his teacher." he moved his pillow into a more comfortable position and continued talking.

**Alexandra Eames's Apartment 3:06 am**

Alex was staring at her phone as if it was gonna bite her. Bobby had called her but hadn't answered. She knew he heard her but thought that he was hearing voices. She was already to shout when she heard him. Apparently he was pretending he was talking to her.

Her curiosity piqued, she quietly listened and found a new side to her partner. A side he was unknowingly sharing. Alex listened trying to process everything he was saying.

'Was he talking about her?' she thought ' Could he possibly see them as anymore that co-workers?

That idea made her warm inside but puzzled as well. Is that what her dream had been telling her, that in some subconscious way she was interested in quirky Robert Goren.

Her gorgeous 6 foot tall partner with the beautiful dark eyes and curly salt & pepper hair. 'Wait did I just mentally check out my partner?' she asked herself surprised.

She didn't see him that way, he was her friend, her partner, one of the people she trusted with her life but as more...could she have fallen for him and not known 'til now. She admitted that she felt safe with him around, like the time they almost danced at the dancing school or when they pretended their car had broken down or when she woke up at the hospital after that brutal case and found him holding her hand.

All those times rushed to her mind and she realized that Bobby and her were on a slippery road with no real destination. She mulled this over as Bobby confessed his feelings.

**Robert Goren's Apartment 3:12 am**

"What would happen if I did tell her? Would she reject me or worse go back to Vice? "He asked his ceiling. The idea of her going back to being on the streets busting johns made his blood boil.

Then the idea of her in an outfit to bust johns made his blood boil in a different way. "Wonder how she looked in those vice outfits." he was pretty sure he'd never see her in anything that revealing.

"What would it be like to sit across from her, with her belly rounded but this time from our child. Being able to hold her hand without any recriminations, just to be able to say, my beautiful wife." he sighed as he mentally pictured her pregnant and smiling at him.

"Alexandra Goren, that has a nice ring to it. Maybe she'd hyphen it or not take my last name at all, that would be like her." he says out loud chuckling about Eames's stubborn streak.

"what a privilege to be able to call her mine. Bobby, you think too much, you have a better chance of catching Nicole than being with Eames." he said to himself. Yawning he rolled over and got comfortable, for the first time that night falling into a peaceful dream of his Alex.

**Alexandra Eames's Apartment 3:27 am**

Alex came out of her daze and realized the only sound coming out her phone was snoring. He had fallen asleep? After all that and he just fell asleep?' she thought angrily.

He had just turned her world on its axis and he was sleeping?" to be fair he hadn't known he was turning her world on its axis, just talking to himself, but that was no excuse.

That thought took nothing away from wanting to give him a swift kick in the ass. Frustrated, she knew sleep would not be forthcoming this night...er... morning. So she resolved what she was going to do.

Well he would not be sleeping for very much longer, that she vowed.

With revenge in her mind, Alex got up, took a freezing shower, got dressed and left her apartment ready to strangle one Bobby Goren.

**Robert Goren's Apartment 4:03 am**

Loud banging woke Bobby up from his sleep and he wondered who had such beef with him that they would wake him at such an indecent hour.

He crawled out of bed, missing his cell phone with its light still on. He yawned and opened the door a smidgen. He got a yell in the face that woke him up fully.

**Outside Robert Goren's Apartment 3:57am**

"I'm not gonna yell at him, I will knock and then talk rationally and then I will call in sick and sleep." she mumbled pacing the corridor outside his apartment.

"Oh screw it, if I can't sleep, neither will he." she then proceeded to bang on his door. She heard a chain being moved as well as deadbolts and then the door opened.

It revealed the sleepy and confused face of her partner Bobby Goren. "What is the matter with you? You just don't open the door to some stranger at 4..." she looked down at her watch. "03 am in New York without asking who it is." she yelled waking and causing him to stammer at the same time.

**Inside Robert Goren's Apartment 4:05am**

"I just...did..n't ..I mean.. w.what are you doing here at this hour? Want coffee or a blanket or something." he stammered.

"I'm sorry, I yelled at you, its just what we work with, you have to be more careful ." she said feeling bad for yelling at him.

"I normally am more cautious but you caught me by surprise." he said looking like a scolded little boy.

"So to what do I owe this visit?" he asked.

Alex rubbed her hands nervously. She'd been so angry on the way over here, she'd forgotten how complicated this could get. "Bobby...I...well..the reason Im...here.uhh...umm." she trailed off.

"Usually I'm the one who has the verbal issues not you." he laughed

"Don't do that, bobby. I hate when you make fun of yourself. It's wrong." she said a hint of tears in her voice.

Bobby was now officially scared, Eames never cried and certainly not in front of him, she got angry and mad but not weepy. This was serious. "Eames, I don't mean it, just don't cry." he said awkwardly hugging her slightly.

She knew this would only confuse him, but she herself was too. Everything Bobby had said hit something inside her. Something she hadn't realized she had pushed down until his sudden revelation and her dream had brought it to the light.

"Bobby...I just wanted to tell you that…" she didn't finished instead she did what she had wanted to do all this time. She stepped into his arms, letting the warmth of his body seep into hers.

She felt him stiffen in confusion. "Just hug me, Bobby." she said, he moved his arms and held her. She could hear his heart beating rapidly somewhere above her head his adam's apple bobbing nervously.

"Alex has something happened?" he asked. She said nothing just loving how he said her name, soft and scared at the same time.

"Yes, something has happened. I need you to listen to me and not interrupt."

She felt him nod and she pulled away from him, staring at his eyes. Eyes that were bright and fearful. She pushed him towards the sofa and then sat next to him, deciding how to go about telling him, that she heard everything he hadn't meant to tell her and how much she felt the same.

"This morning I had a strange dream..."she said "I was having nightmares all night too." he said interrupting her. "Not nightmares but a dream an odd dream. It looked like one of our every day's but I was pregnant and had this rock on my finger." she said once again being interrupted by Bobby.

"Maybe you feel lonely, now that you done carrying the baby. Maybe you should date." he said quietly.

"Goren, stop interrupting." she yelled at him. He flinched and bit his lip. "Anyway I was pregnant and with this rock and then you helped me out of my chair." he moved to say something but realized she had told him not to interrupt. "then the captain called us by our last names." she finished sitting down again indicating it was all right for him to talk.

"Why's that weird?. He always calls us by our last names" Bobby asked puzzled.

"Bobby, he called the same name twice." she said. Recognition dawned on him and he muttered an "Ooh."

His face saddened." Is that what the disturbed you, that we had...um...the same name?" he asked trying not to sound hurt.

"Oh no, it's not that." She said quickly noticing the sadness in his face." I just never thought of that I guess. I also got a phone call." she said staring at her lap.

Bobby Goren paled and leaned heavily onto his knees. Looking as if he was gonna pass out or hyperventilate. "You heard, I really..."he couldn't even finish, he just stared at the floor in misery. 'How could I have been so stupid. No wonder she's all freaked out.

First the dream and now this. I ruined whatever we had. She wasn't supposed to hear that. She was never supposed to find out.' he thought desperately.

"Bobby? I was so horrified, I just sat there and listened and I just couldn't stop you." she said tears starting to roll down her face.

Bobby got up and headed to his room. She heard something smash against the wall and figured it was the tell tale phone.

He came back from his room and leaned heavily against the doorway. "I never meant for you to hear that. I always knew that if I said anything. Nothing good would come of it." he said, a lump forming in his throat. His head bent, 'so this was what it felt like to have your heart be ripped out.' he thought to himself.

"Robert?" he looked up at her, he knew this was serious, she never called him Robert.

"You know what I have to do, don't you?" she said walking towards him.

He sagged against his door frame, feeling the sadness eat away at him. He lost her. He had finally pushed her away. She had lasted so much longer than he thought. She shouldn't have to be burdened with his feelings as well as his presence.

"Yeah, I know. I will speak to the Captain. Can you hold off 'til this case is over?" he asked pain evident in his very posture.

"No, I can't this has been building up for a long time. I just can't stand it anymore." she said looking up at him, tears rolling down her face.

"Eames? How long have you felt this way? Why didn't you say something? Why did you keep quiet if it bothered you that much?" he asked turning away from her. He held onto the doorway for support and prayed to God above that he wouldn't die from the pain.

"I felt this way for a long time. I just didn't realize 'til now." she said touching his back softly. His back stiffened and he shrugged her hand off.

"Fine, I will stay in my space and let the Captain take care of it and then you can do what you want." he said rubbing his tears angrily away.

"Captain can't do this, this is between me and you." she said once again trying to get him to look at her.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked defeated as he turned and looked at her. Alex gasped her tough, strong Bobby was crying.

It was then that Alex understood. "Oh Bobby, you are so dense for someone so intelligent", and to his surprise... Alexandra Eames stood on her tippy toes and kissed her partner Robert Goren full on the lips.

He pulled away and stared at her, not understanding what was happening. "You're kissing me because you're leaving.?" he asked

"No, Bobby. I'm kissing you because somewhere down the line of being your partner and friend. I fell for you hard, I just didn't know 'til you told me." she said smiling at his confusion.

"Ohh..."his face light up and he smiled wide."Ohhhh...you feel the same..."and with that brilliant statement Robert Goren got what he never thought. Alexandra Eames in his arms.

The End


End file.
